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this post was submitted on 26 Feb 2026
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That's depression, not nihilism. Nihilism is related to existentialism, and is about believing in nothing but what you experience or can prove. Unfortunately it's very close to some forms of scientism, whereby someone makes "Science" their religious faith. The idea of nihilism is to be faithless and to view the world through the lens of the material.
I feel like this isn't a great explanation of nihilism, someone might think it functionally is materialism, or some sort of skepticism.
Nihilism is the rejection of meaning, ethics, or knowledge as things that actually exist objectively. An existentialist accepts some form of nihilism, and grapples with its consequences. One key idea across existentialist thinkers is that Existence precedes Essence, that existing is always shaping who you become, rather than some kind of intrinsic being that nihilism would reject.
I'll admit that a lot of my understanding of nihilism came from existentialist thinkers, and from Turgenev's Bazarov.
They didn't say science, they said scientism. As a term it's been used a few ways, but in this context it's referring to a sort of cargo cult erected around "science". It's not about testing theories and hypotheses, it's a dogmatic acceptance of some extant collection of scientific theories as fact, even beyond their experimental context or in light of conflicting evidence. Among other things.
I'm more suspicious of people fretting over "scientism" than I am concerned about people dogmatically accepting scientific theories.
There is such a thing as motivated reasoning and I look down on those that indulge in it.
I'm not. Scientism, in this meaning, it's basically the opposite of science. It stifles proper scientific reasoning. Pretending it isn't a problem is itself a problem.
I said I'm suspicious of people worried about it, not that I'm a supporter of scientism.
A lot of people who seem to worry about scientism turn out to have some quackery that they insist is worth looking into because "Its not been disproven". Or have some kind of spiritual belief that they want to mentally run cover for via "science might be wrong".
That's a fair thing to be concerned about - any blind faith is a problem. We should always be ready to, if not slaughter our sacred cows, at least take them to the vet once in a while (apologies for the tortured metaphor).
Oh, so I am a nihilist? 🤔
As another commenter pointed out, this is a bad description of nihilism. That sentence describes empiricism.
You are probably an empiricist.
As that other commenter pointed out: